World Religions Essay

1294 words - 6 pages

Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu who developed the concept of Tao, the path, in that everything revolves around this way. There are three ways to understand Tao; Tao is the same in everything, ultimate reality, it cannot be exhausted, and is the way of life. In Taoism, the ability to move the power of the Tao is called Te, and can be translated into three different meanings. Philosophical Taoism is the first one, it is reflective and is the attitude towards life; the second is vitalizing, because it is active and engages in ch’i or energy. The last meaning is religious Taoism, this involves meditation on a nothingness and uses soothsayers or faith healers to understand problems and answers; the ...view middle of the document...

Since Confucianism revolves around relationships, five ideals structure the way relationships function together; jen is the ideal relationship between two individuals, chun tzu is being the ideal host, li describes the meaning of the Five Constant Relationships, te is meant for power, and wen is of the arts. These five ideals structure the relationships that Confucius wanted in order to build a stronger community, so he brings attention to the fundamental aspect that self-development is important, because man has a social responsibility to maintain focus within the society.
The object of Taoism is make Tao part of everyday life, so that focus on the individual switches to focus beyond the man and society. Every effort made by Taoist is to capture the Tao, because it runs through everything; it is common for their architecture to blend into nature, since energy runs through it, too. For example, in the Vitalizing branch individuals may work every day with ch’i, vital energy, to remove obstacles that are in their way in order to experience a better flow of Tao. Taoist will also work with matter, movement, and their minds to achieve ch’i; matter involves eating certain foods to test what allows a better flow of energy, while movement can entail acupuncture. Of course the mind involves meditation and examination of the inner self. The religious branch deals with society by placing shamans and faith healers with the ability to harness the higher power, so they can transfer energy to those who struggle to get energy on their own. Above all, Taoism tries to take the flow of energy and maximize it by way of going beyond the individual or society that creates the blockage. However, Confucianism mostly deals with the social role of the individual to keep focus within the society; that’s not to say that the self is anywhere near as important as the relationships that make up society. Confucius had the idea that a person has a vital role and obligation to the community, because behaving and interacting with others created a stronger community, but the self is made up of the interactions with others. The goal is to become more human and Confucius explain how interactions with each other enable this through his Five Constant Relationships; These five relationships, child to parent, husband to wife, subject to rulers, and younger friends and siblings to the older ones, all create the circle that helps strengthen the community. Confucianism begins with the individual, moves to family interaction, then moves beyond to society, where all of these interactions help each other become more human by fulfilling their obligation. Since Confucius believed a better community started with the self, he laid out five ideals that dealt with the individual that he described as jen, chun tzu, li, te, and wen; the purpose of the structures is to take the good morals...

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